Sun Family Home

An important factor when using solar, wind or hydro generators is conservation. That means keeping lights off when they aren’t needed, and using appliances only when necessary. This does not mean you have to stop using your washer/dryer. You can still watch TV, run your computer, keep your food cold in the refrigerator, and even have a large electric freezer for storing bulk-food.

The Sun Home The Sun family has a home in a suburban neighborhood on the eastern seaboard. They are a family of five, including Grandma, recently widowed. With two children in middle school and a home-office, mom and dad are pretty busy. Dad works in the city, mom runs a home-based business selling candles on the Internet. Their first solar panel system served as a back-up to utility power. Now, they use utility power as a back-up for their solar system. They invested a total of $16,000 for their solar system. It should give them the power they need for at least 30 years. They used to pay more than $900 per year to the power company. Now they pay nothing. Their savings also come in the form of hidden costs of utility power production. The hidden costs of utility power amount to $3,715 per year, based on $743 per family members. For the Sun family, using clean solar power means they no longer contribute to these hidden costs, and they no longer pay a power bill. These factors mean their system will pay for itself in five years.

Sell power back to the utility company The Sun family has in a high-output, utility interactive solar power system that lets them sell electricity back to the power company. They have 20 75 watt solar panels. During daylight, their panels power their home and sell the left-over power to the utility company. At night, or on low-sun days, their system automatically switches to draw from utility power. The net effect is a yearly power bill of ZERO! (read more about Utility Tie Systems)

Energy efficient appliances Before they went with solar power, they invested in energy efficient appliances. For example, their SunFrost refrigerator uses only 10 percent of the power of normal refrigerators. Although this refrigerator cost them about $2,000, the savings made the investment pay off in just a couple of years. Using flourescent light bulbs cut their lighting power needs by another 90 percent! They use natural gas for winter-heating, hot water and cooking.

Their solar system gives them enough electricity to live comfortably, though it took some discipline for everyone to learn to keep lights off, and reduce their TV watching. They found that reading books was more interesting than TV anyway. They also stopped using their dishwasher, but it makes a handy cabinet for pots and pans. They yard-sold many of their recent anniversary gifts; like the electric can-opener, the computerized coffee-maker and the electric bread-machine. They don’t mind boiling water and using a drip-style coffee pot. They decided that the can-opener and bread-machine were unecessary wastes of eletricity.

Reduced operating costs Regardless of what your power source is, energy efficient lighting, refrigerating and cooling systems will quickly pay for themselves in reduced operating costs. Using compact fluorescent lights cut their light power-needs by about 90 percent. During daytime, they keep shades open and use natural lighting. In the evening they keep the kitchen and living room lights on from sun-set until about 10pm. There are usually two other lights on in bedrooms, or the office, for a few hours a night. The kids play the piano and guitar, and the whole family loves good music. They don't have to sacrifice listening to their favorite CDs, as the stereo is on about three hours a day.

The Sun family has a very low power-draw, low water consumption washing machine. The Danby Twin Tub Washer uses less than 200 watts per load. It cost them $500. They use their old, natural gas-fired clothes dryer only in “emergencies,” as they have clothes-drying lines set up in their back yard and basement.

Grandma needs air conditioning Air conditioning is expensive. In low-humidity climates, a high-efficiency evaporative cooler works great and uses less power than a normal light bulb. But, the Sun family lives in a climate with humidity often rising above 50 percent, so they cannot use an evaporative cooler. Grandma moved in just as they were considering expanding their solar system. They knew she would need air conditioning. This pushed them to go completely solar, and they bought a Friedrich 4.4 amo high-efficiency, low-draw air conditioner. Their home is well insulated, and during extreme heat they make an effort to keep shades drawn. The AC unit is set into the outside wall of Grandma's bedroom, which is on the north side of the house out of direct sunlight. She can keep her room below 85« even when the outside temperature reaches 100«, by running the unit two to four hours a day. During extremely long heat waves, they can switch on utility power if they need to, but they haven’t had to do this yet.

Power needs The table below shows their power needs. A typical suburban home uses about 30 kilowatt hours a day. With some basic conservation efforts The Sun Family was able to reduce this figure to only 6 kilowatt hours per day! At the utility rate of $.08 per kilowatt hour, 30 KWh/day would normally cost $876 per year. That means their 16,000 system will pay for itself in about 18 years, even if you don’t consider the hidden costs of utility power. Considering the hidden costs means the system will pay for itself in only 5 years.

Applicance	Watts per hour	Hours per week	Total watt/hours per week
Washing machine	360	2 (four loads)	720
Vacuum cleaner	700	1	700
Sewing machine	100	1	100
Clothing Iron	1000	.25 (15 minutes)	250
Ceiling fan	50	40 in summer/winter	2000
Computer	150	40 (for business)	6000
19" color TV	70	14	980
VCR	40	2	80
CD player/Stereo	35	21	735
Fluorescent lights	16 5	lights average 5 hours/day = 400w	2800
Sunfrost 19cf Refrigerator	112	49	5488
Sunfrost 19 cf freezer	112	70	8750
Friedrich SQ05J10A 4.4 amp AC unit	528	15 during very hot weather	7590
Microwave Oven	600	2	1200

Total Weekly Draw, without AC, in watts	29,803/wk, 4,258/day
Total Weekly Draw with 15 hrs of AC	37,393/wk, 5342/day